Fresh, high-energy and inventive, this is postmodern straight-ahead instrumental jazz by a dedicated team of young veterans who work and record with many headliners. UK fans will remember Orlando Le Fleming as the classy London double bassist who slipped across the Atlantic with every chance of success. Saxman Frahm is also familiar with London and pianist Grissett also appeared in London with trumpeter Jeremy Pelt's group. But this is guitarist Guarna's show and genuinely impressive it is. He exhibits fine technique as a player and considerable originality as a composer. He wrote all eight originals here, complex themes with a discernible relation to one another, a genuine suite with a personal concept. His way with chords and scales is particularly distinctive, and his guitar sound is equally personal – a round, almost ethnic tone articulated with deft technique and a hardnosed metallic edge. Not so, of course, during ‘Elegy for Ethan’, a tender ballad for guitar and trio. Elsewhere Blake and Le Fleming power along with real commitment while Grissett and Frahm burn like the pros they are. And all the themes are executed faultlessly.